The MSRC, in partnership with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), is helping to make owning a CNG car that much easier. Thanks to Clean Transportation Funding from the MSRC, drivers of CNG vehicles in the South Coast Air District can receive a $2,000 incentive toward the purchase and installation of a Phill, a compressed natural gas appliance that can be mounted to the wall of a garage, carport or placed outdoors for convenient home refueling.
The MSRC program will ensure that 178 Phill units will be incentivized. The MSRC is contributing $296,000 in funding to the program and the SCAQMD is contributing an additional $60,000. The MSRC provides $1,000 and the SCAQMD provides $1,000 per eligible household, until the SCAQMD funds are exhausted; then, the MSRC will provide the full $2,000 incentive.
This is the third round of joint-funding from the MSRC and SCAQMD. Since the program began in 2005, 275 Phill units have received incentive funding to date.
While funding to implement the program originally was awarded to Mansfield Gas Equipment Systems, Mansfield recently was purchased by Clean Energy Fuels Corporation. The Phill Incentive Program for qualified purchasers remains in place, and Clean Energy currently is working on plans that will continue the success of the Phill program.
The Phill station costs about $4,000 plus installation, which can be an additional $1,500. There is a $1,000 federal income tax credit available for home refueling appliances; thus, the additional $2,000 that the MSRC is helping to provide is a critical link to help expand the growth of CNG passenger vehicles throughout the South Coast basin.
Growing the number of CNG vehicles on California’s roadways is a necessary component to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goal of returning to 1990 levels by 2020. Transportation is the single largest contributor of GHGs in California, contributing to nearly 40 percent of state’s GHG emissions. The carbon intensity of North American produced natural gas is nearly 29 percent lower than diesel fuel and 30 percent lower than conventional gasoline. Moreover, in order to meet the region’s 8-hour ozone air quality standard by 2023, the South Coast must reduce its NOx emissions by 65 percent, which will require a broad deployment of zero and near-zero technologies - CNG vehicles being one of these technologies.
Although the price to purchase a natural gas vehicle is higher at the outset, driving a natural gas vehicle is a great way to combat the volatility of gasoline prices that has been occurring over the last few years. Depending upon the price of home-delivered natural gas, the price to fuel a natural gas vehicle can between $1 to $2 per gasoline-gallon equivalent (GGE), compared to about $4 per gallon for conventional gasoline. In most cases it is even cheaper to fill up at home rather than at an alternative fueling station, although home refueling takes longer since natural gas fed into the home is under very low pressure, unlike a commercial fueling station. Additionally, Southern California Gas Company residential customers can receive a lower gas rate, which can help to lower the cost of fueling with CNG at home.
The Phill uses a 240-volt outlet and a home’s natural gas supply, and takes up to 20 hours to fill a typical 8 GGE tank found in a natural gas passenger vehicle, like the Honda Civic GX CNG. However, most users don’t wait until their tank is completely empty to refuel, cutting down the time it takes to fill up their tank. Thus, most drivers can refuel overnight and have a full tank in the morning.
The environmental and cost-savings benefits of natural gas, combined with the convenience of at-home refueling and the cost reduction for the Phill unit provided by MSRC funding, make driving a natural gas vehicle an even more attractive option now for Southern Californians.
To learn more about the Phill incentive program, please contact Phil Barroca at the South Coast Air Quality Management District at (909) 396-2409 or pbarroca@aqmd.gov.